C&C on People Pics

I have been shooting landscape and other inanimate pictures for some time, but I am really wanting to improve my people pic skills. I would appreciate any feedback you might offer. Thanks!

these really need some editing work and 2 is quite under exposed, I also don't find the composition or poses very interesting.

Thanks for the comment Shadow. With regards to editing, is there something in particular they need? I am far from an editing expert (as you can tell), but if I have a little direction I can work toward something better. As far as #2 being "quite underexposed" - if I look at the histogram of just his face, it seems right on target to me. If I include the hair, it moves to the underexposed side. I bumped it half a stop and it looked better (I think), but just over that and the face looks hot. Is half a stop "quite underexposed" in your opinion, or am I missing something?

With regards to the composition or poses - I can't do anything to change that on these pics. Fortunately my wife and son are happy with them. I'll have to look at more examples and try to improve.

Mods: I thought I put this in the people forum, not people talk. Can you move it?

The histogram isn't a replacement for your own eyes, compared to the others it looks quite under exposed, and the visual component is what matters in photographs. As for my comment in editing, they just look SOOC, they have no pop, nothing to draw anyone in.

It looks like you shot outdoors with the sun behind the camera and to the side and used fill flash. This is not a bad start. You may want to try the sun to the side and slightly behind the subject to give some rim light and use the flash to light the face (needs to be off camera though). Also, experiment with reflectors.

I agree they look a bit underexposed and lack pop. If you use an image editing program do a levels adjustment and move the black and white point to the left and right of the histogram peak. This will expand the dynamic range and increase aparrent contrast. Also (using Photoshop) add a curves layer and pull the central section up a bit.

Finally, for portraits, try to get the eyes at the intersection of the lower 2/3 and the upper 1/3 for a more pleasing composition.

Thanks to both of you for the advice. I have made some edits, which I have moved to a new post in the right area (https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=13562727#po​st13562727).

I think with a little editing the family will love them. I agree with moving so the sun is more to the side.